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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Ryan Palmer may really feel Cam Smith’s footsteps approaching from behind the microphone. After a whole spherical taking part in collectively, he wished to get in a single final shot.
“That is what I like about what we do out right here, there’s at all times someplace to go up and there is at all times one thing to play for,” Palmer mentioned, deliberately framing a query concerning the BMW Championship throughout the bigger narrative that has consumed golf this season, a story through which Smith has grow to be a central determine. “We’re not taking part in for simply cash.”
Welcome to what’s changing into probably the most weird FedEx Cup playoffs in PGA Tour historical past, and its annual cease in Memphis may additionally double as the beginning of the PGA Tour’s worst nightmare.
Smith is the most recent golfer rumored to quickly be defecting to LIV Golf and he’s simply two pictures again of the lead heading into Sunday on the FedEx St. Jude Championship. He would ascend to No. 1 on the planet rankings ought to he win this event.
And strolling the course with him provided perception into simply how unhealthy this may get for the PGA Tour. His gallery picked up steam simply as he did on the again 9. By successful The Gamers Championship and The Open Championship, and by doing so with that particular mullet of his, he constructed a model by means of the PGA Tour.
A model that’s stronger proper now than a variety of the golfers anticipated to stay loyal to the PGA Tour. A model that LIV Golf has reportedly deemed to be value $100 million. A model that is perhaps as painful to lose as any of the massive names that already left.
Simply think about if Smith leaves the PGA Tour after successful one in all its signature occasions (The Gamers), the final main of the 12 months, after which the season-ending postseason the Tour has spent greater than a decade attempting to show into a giant deal. Think about if he does it because the No. 1 golfer on the planet.
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“I had Jordan Spieth, (Matt) Fitzpatrick and (Max) Homa yesterday, and this man has far more followers,” mentioned FedEx St. Jude Championship volunteer commonplace bearer Nick Johnson. “He acquired extra yells at him as we speak than all three mixed.”
Some should not what you’d ever count on on a golf course, a minimum of till this 12 months.
“$100 million man!,” a patron screamed as Smith walked by on No. 14.
“Sellout!” shouted one other.
“Don’t go to LIV!” somebody pleaded as Smith ambled down the seventeenth fairway.
However there have been much more cheers than jeers. This isn’t one other scenario like final 12 months, when Bryson DeChambeau’s critics outnumbered his champions throughout a Sunday collapse on the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Smith acquired a loud roar upon being launched on the 18th inexperienced and took selfies with followers as he headed to signal his scorecard.
“The previous couple of weeks at dwelling has been principally can’t exit to dinner with out anybody saying hi there or wanting an image,” Smith mentioned of his latest burst in notoriety since successful The Open Championship. “So it has been a bit of bit completely different, however yeah, nonetheless getting used to it.”
Austin Allen, as an illustration, drove all the way in which from Murray, Kentucky, to absorb Saturday’s third spherical. His plan was to observe Scottie Scheffler, the present No. 1 on the planet. These plans went awry when Scheffler, who generated headlines by strolling throughout Smith’s sightline as he lined up a putt within the first spherical, missed the lower.
The golfer Allen selected to observe as a substitute? Smith. And the Aussie made a very endearing impression on the seventh gap.
He hit his tee shot far proper into the group. To this point that it broke a fan’s cellphone.
“What’s your cellphone quantity?” Smith requested her, in line with Allen. “I’ll purchase you a brand new cellphone.”
He actually can afford it.
However the PGA Tour can’t afford for Smith to maintain going like this. To doubtlessly grow to be one of the best golfer on the planet proper earlier than he bolts for the Saudi-funded LIV Golf collection that lured Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and DeChambeau earlier than him.
The stakes are excessive Sunday, and Smith doesn’t appear to be distracted by them, or by Palmer, or by any of the controversy presently swirling round him.
“I am simply attempting to hit one of the best shot I can,” Smith mentioned. “That is what I am right here to do is to hit good golf pictures and make birdies.”
And, maybe, give the PGA Tour the nightmare it so desperately must keep away from.
You’ll be able to attain Industrial Enchantment columnist Mark Giannotto through electronic mail at mgiannotto@gannett.com and observe him on Twitter: @mgiannotto
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